RBS may have to prove their commitment to local people if they are to retain business with Stirling Council.

Several councillors are still unhappy that the authority continues to bank with the Royal Bank of Scotland despite the closure of branches in the area.

And they are asking officers to look closely at how the council can demand greater loyalty to the public from banking providers and other companies if they want to keep the authority’s business.

In the summer council officers told the finance committee they had no choice but to sign a new £112,000 three-year deal with Royal Bank of Scotland last month as it was the only bank who made a bid.

The council’s chief finance officer Jim Boyle told committee members: “We will continue to liaise and communicate with the Royal Bank of Scotland on any operational issues that may arise, to ensure best value for money is achieved and ensure the council makes best use of any services and developments in banking services and technology.

“RBS has been operating well from our point of view. Obviously they have closed branches in our area and relocated a branch in Stirling city centre, but from our own point of view the contract has been operating satisfactorily.”

Council leader Scott Farmer, however, said the retention of RBS as the council’s bank was “a bit of a slap in the face to our communities”.

“We [taxpayers] bailed them out during the financial crisis and this is how they are paying us back. Can we put something in place going forward for contracting arrangements.”

Chief commissioning officer Isabel McKnight said: “There’s a community benefit clause which can be put into agreements, but we have flexibility and probably this has been a learning curve. The difficulty we had for that contract was the way we tendered although we agreed it was the right way at the time.

“We need to look at our own frameworks and community benefit strategy. In terms of that particular contract it was down to where the market was at the time.

“We have something called a fair working practices consultation and we are looking to expand that and consider some social element, particularly around social care contracts and community care contracts, but in this instance it was a particularly difficult to do that.”

Tory councillor Neil Benny said: “We would want to make sure any bank we are committed to in future was committed to the community. Having something in the contract other than the community benefit element is something we need to look.”

The new RBS branch at the Thistles shopping centre opened earlier this month, after relocating from Pitt Terrace.

However, the branch at Bannockburn closed its doors just prior to that, leaving the town without a bank for the first time in a century.

Branches in Bridge of Allan and Dunblane were closed in June this year.

Councillor Danny Gibson told the committee news it was “disgraceful’” that RBS had extended the lease on the Bannockburn branch until March next year to give them time to move out, adding: “They should hand the keys back early and let us get with it. We don’t want an empty building sitting there. If you are away then get out.”

The recent closures come as part of a plan by the banking giant to axe 62 branches nationwide.

More than 2,000 people signed an online petition in a fight to keep the Bannockburn branch open.